Sample Questions - Entry Level

10 Questions

No, not unless it is an embedded and included misdemeanor in a larger felony

Yes, as long as the offense is also a tort against another in civil law

What is another type of contact possible between a civilian and a peace officer other than an arrest?

A structured interview

A detention

A challenge

An involuntary detail

What is the threshold behavior that turns a contact between civilian and peace officer into a detention?

When the officer starts giving orders

When handcuffs are brandished

When handcuffs are applied

When the civilian is placed inside a cage, i.e., the back of a patrol car with no inside door handles

When may officers move a person under detention but not arrest?

Never - such movement turns it into an arrest

Only when absolutely necessary such as to move them away from a hostile crowd

Any time such movement does not impose undue hardship to the detainee such as driving them across the city and droppingthem off there

Any time

How much force may be used to make an arrest?

There is no legal or prescribed limit; officers must use their own judgment

There is no restriction except for lethal force which may only be used as a last resort

Only that force which is necessary

No force; officers may only parry that force used against them or to resist

What mitigating factor, perhaps not reported widely in the news, may have contributed to Rodney King's failure to lie still and be docile during his infamous arrest and beating sequence several years ago?

He was being repeatedly shot by TASER during the ordeal

He was suffering from epileptic seizures

He did not realize it was police trying to subdue him

He was wildly hallucinating on drugs at the time

What was the significance of the Garner case originating in Tennessee?

It equated rape with murder in terms of punishment

It created the "killer-kidnapper" paradox wherein a kidnapper might as well kill the victim

It established that minors are legally incapable of willfully using deadly force

It ruled against the ages-old accepted practice of using deadly force to stop a fleeing felon

Officers' escalations of force must be of a certain type. What type?

Proactive

Reactive

Preemptive

Ablative

May people other than peace officers legally use force to defend another from imminent injury due to impending assault?

No, only peace officers are authorized to do that

No, only peace officers and licensed "body guards" may do that

Yes, if such defense is reasonable

Yes, if such defense was felt by the actor to be necessary, whether or not anyone else in retrospect agrees

In use of force for defense situations, how will the court view the police officer?

As presumed unreasonable until shown otherwise by evidence or testimony of witnesses

As a reasonable person unless proven otherwise in court

As an unknown quantity but with a suspicion of impropriety firmly established

As a person held to an extraordinarily high standard of ethical, informed, legal, and moral behavior